Updated 7:20 am, Thursday, January 3, 2013

COLONIE — A convicted rapist was charged with sexually abusing a 91-year-old woman in the Albany Shaker Road nursing home at which he worked as a maintenance employee.

Richard Ragone, 64, a Level 3 sex offender, victimized the woman on Nov. 30 in her room at the Loudonville Home for Adults at 298 Albany Shaker Road, Colonie police said Wednesday. He previously spent more than 16 years behind bars for the 1983 rape and sodomy of a woman in Saratoga County.

Ragone, of Maryland Avenue in Albany, inappropriately touched the woman after going to her room to change a light bulb, according to Colonie police Lt. Robert Winn.

A co-worker spotted Ragone as he "placed his hands down the shirt of the victim and rubbed her breasts without consent," police said.

Nursing home officials fired Ragone when they learned of the allegations, and he was arrested Dec. 20 following a police investigation, Winn said.

Ragone allegedly confessed the crime to police in a statement, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Police charged Ragone with endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, a felony, and misdemeanor sexual abuse. He was arraigned and was being held in the Albany County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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He was convicted in 1984 of first-degree rape, sodomy and attempted sexual abuse and sentenced to 12½ to 25 years in prison.

He was paroled in April 2000 and came off parole in 2008 — the same year he was hired at the home.

Overall, he has four prior felony convictions and five misdemeanor convictions.

Winn said police are still investigating. He asked anyone with information to contact police at 783-2754.